A person can be happy and satisfied with their lot, but may well be lured away by another company offering something they don’t already have.

Instead, Kruse says “Engagement can be defined as the emotional commitment and discretionary effort the employee brings to the company and its goals”

This is different to motivation.

Where motivation often involves outside influences to effect a change in behaviour, engagement requires the person themselves to agree to bring their efforts and commitment to the role, without being persuaded through external stimuli.

So, the question ‘How do I motivate my team members?’ is now out of date.

The new question should be ‘How do I inspire my team to want to bring an engaged and committed attitude to work?’

We’ve got to have ‘engaged’ team members in order to get the results we strive to achieve.

Here are what we call the ‘five levels’ of engagement and how each level is manifested at work:

We can place people at differing levels, according to their level of engagement, as follows:

Level Zero: Actively Disengaged

Symptoms can include

Lack of feeling of inclusion

Excess sick-leave taken

Untimely absences

Late to work or early to leave

Withdrawal from team activities

Poor productivity with no acceptance of responsibility

Sabotage of progress through negativity or bad attitude

These people choose to disengage and be separate from the culture of the team or organisation because of lack of progress opportunities or a myriad of other reasons they can rationalise.

The lower the level of engagement, the greater the propensity to blame things and people for poor performance or lack of results.

Level One: You buy their time

Indications can include:

Turning up and leaving at exact times

Doing the barest minimum to get by

Keeping to their job description and nothing else

Spending discretionary time on social media

Not contributing to overall effectiveness or progress

Causing issues during crises or when emergency cover is required

People at his level turn up, do a job and go home.

They expect paying for the time they are there but they don’t contribute much to the overall performance and would be quick to move on if an opportunity arose.

Level Two: They buy into your vision

Indications can include:

Contributing more to productivity

Highlighting areas of concern

Being more creative in the way things should be done

Showing higher levels of confidence and competence

Recognising why they are there and understanding what you are trying to achieve

This is where people see the purpose of the business, why it exists and what they are hoping to achieve.

They increase their discretionary effort and allow themselves to become more involved in the processes and procedures that drive results

Level Three: Ownership and Personal Responsibility

Indications can include:

Accepting ownership of issues

Deliberating on and working with challenges as they arise

Not attributing blame to other people when things go wrong

Putting emphasis on solutions rather than problems

Seeing the positive element in challenges

Choosing their response to situations, rather than being driven by reactions

Take personal responsibility for their own growth and development

Here, people are driven by the contributions they can make, delving deep into their discretionary efforts so they no longer need to be managed, but can be led by team leaders who appreciate their competencies and abilities to increase the effectiveness of the department.